Egypt still holds Morsi’s lawyer son in solitary confinement

The son of the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is still being held in solitary confinement by the regime of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi following his detention in December 2016 after he called for the UN to investigate the violations against his father while in prison. Lawyer Osama Morsi was a member of his late father’s defence team from the time of the August 2013 coup that overthrew the first democratically-elected president of Egypt.

Morsi was sentenced to ten years in prison after taking part in the August 2013 Rabaa Al-Adawiya protests in central Cairo. The authorities killed around 900 protesters when they broke up the demonstration.

Amidst a complete media blackout, rights groups have called repeatedly for the Egyptian authorities to stop their violations against Osama Morsi. In 2020, rights activists told Arabi21.com that he was being held in solitary confinement and was banned from receiving any medical treatment and exercising. He has to sleep on the ground even in winter and is prevented from seeing anyone apart from prison officers.

READ: World reacts to the death of Mohamed Morsi

A source from Morsi’s family also told Arabi21.com that he has only seen his mother twice since being imprisoned: once when he was allowed to bury his father in June 2019; and again when he buried his brother Abdullah, who passed away two months later.

Israa Al-Najjar is Osama Morsi’s wife. She said on Monday that her only son is now six years old but hasn’t seen his father Osama. “Today, my son, Mohammad, turned six,” she wrote on Facebook. “Every day, he asks: ‘Where is my dad?’ His dad will not ring the doorbell because he is jailed by Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who prevents us from our natural rights.”

She wonders how the people who prevent her son from seeing his father can sleep at night. “How can they enjoy life while they prevent many sons from hugging their fathers and fathers from hugging their sons? Even if he is sentenced over real issues, we still have the right to meet him and he has the right to see us and know about our life and for us to know about his prison conditions. We have been prevented from visiting him for six years.”

Former Egypt President Morsi dies in court – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]